"NINJAS!" the mutants scream as they flee from their attackers.
They skid to a stop as more ninjas appears before them, weapons brandished.
"Where are we?" Leonardo demands.
"Not where are we, but when are we?" Donatello corrects. "We're obviously in Japan, but the time period is shaky."
A battle cry sounds as one ninja launches a kusarigama chain at the ground, wrapping it around Leonardo's katana. He gasps and tries to yank it back, but the ninja pulls harder and sends him rolling. The others launch into action immediately.
Michelangelo grips his nunchucks as he looks to the numerous ninjas surrounding him. They pop out from hiding spots behind trees and he's tackled to the ground before he can attempt a counterattack.
Donatello lurches to the side as a ninja leaps down at him. The ninja retaliates against his dodge swiftly, jabbing and slashing with a speed and skill that proves he's been working at ninjutsu for many more years than Donatello has. Donatello swerves and spins, narrowly evading the blows, and then the assailant's blade slices through his LARP costume beard.
"These guys are good!" he says, his hand hovering by the decimated remains of his beard.
"Oh shell, I'm so screwed," Destiny squeaks as she focuses on playing the defensive roll.
She leaps away from the various blades and chains swinging her way, her moves getting more and more sloppy in her desperation. Raphael battles near her, a pair of ninjas attacking him in perfect harmony as they push him further and further backwards. One cuts downwards, but the turtle catches the blade between his sais and shoves him off. The ninja retorts with two shuriken whipping at his face, which he also deflects.
One shuriken lodges in a tree trunk near where Leonardo is tussling with another warrior. His eyes widen when he notices a familiar insignia on the sleek weapon. It's the exact same insignia that's on the weapons that Splinter provides to them back at home.
"They're not just ninja, they're Hamato Clan! Splinter's clan—" he starts, but he gets elbowed in the gut by the ninja he's tussling with. The ninja spins around and shoves his head into the dirt.
"But the Hamato Clan doesn't exist anymore, right?" Raphael asks. He gets kicked backwards hard enough that his dwarf helmet comes off and he goes rolling over and over until he comes to a stop next to his exhausted siblings.
Destiny snarls, sheathing her sword. "Okay, that's it."
She morphs into a wolf and lets out a roar that seems to shake the entire forest. The ninjas shriek and back off, speaking in rapid-fire Japanese. The only speech that Destiny can catch is "yokai" and "ōkami", making her eyes widen. The ninjas recover from the initial shock and aim their weapons at the teenagers, their eyes narrowed with hostility as they move towards them.
"What is going on here?" a deep voice asks from behind the group. The mutants bristle.
Destiny returns to her human form in an instant, face paling. A man emerges from the crowd of ninjas, his dark eyes widening at the sight of the mutants. He's wearing the red clothes of the Hamato Clan and he's rather young, but that doesn't change the fact that the mutants know exactly who the brunet before them is.
"Yokai?" he gasps.
"Shredder?" Leonardo returns.
Shredder steps forward, his lips parted. "This cannot be."
Michelangelo releases a smoke bomb and all five teens disappear from view. The younger Shredder and his men wait for the smoke to clear, not even coughing. When it finally dissipates, he narrows his eyes.
YOU ARE READING
Forest Mutation (Book Two)
Fanfiction"In Saskatchewan, when I couldn't fall asleep, I'd watch the moon and think about how across the country and over the border, you were probably out on a rooftop beneath the same moon. You were the first person I enjoyed the moon with. Every other ti...
